WASHINGTON (AP) — Now it's Mitt Romney who wants to be the candidate of change.

Romney
seized on President Barack Obama's comment that "you can't change
Washington from the inside." Grasping for a way to right his campaign
and appeal to independents, the Republican nominee said he has what it
takes to end the nasty partisanship in the nation's capital.

"I
can change Washington," Romney said Thursday. "I will change Washington.
We'll get the job done from the inside. Republicans and Democrats will
come together."

Romney was expected to press the issue again
Friday during a campaign rally in Nevada, a state hard hit by the
nation's housing and unemployment woes.

Obama, traveling Friday to
Virginia and addressing an AARP convention by satellite, planned to
keep hammering Romney for comments he made in a private fundraiser about
47 percent of the country believing they are victims and entitled to a
government handouts.

Obama, who ran for president in 2008 on a
pledge to fix Washington's combative tone, said in an interview that he
had come to the conclusion "you can't change Washington from the inside.
You can only change it from the outside." Adding that he wanted people
to speak out on issues, he went on to say: "So something that I'd really
like to concentrate on in my second term is being in a much more
constant conversation with the American people so that they can put
pressure on Congress to help move some of these issues forward."

After
Romney focused on the "can't change Washington from the inside" segment
of Obama's remarks, the president's campaign countered quickly by
noting that Romney said exactly that in 2007, when he was running for
the 2008 Republican nomination: "I don't think you change Washington
from the inside. I think you change it from the outside."

Obama
adviser David Axelrod defended the president's comments on NBC's
"Today." ''He said in order to move Washington and to move the Congress,
you have to enlist the American people," Axelrod said.

"That was
the lesson he learned from the standoff on the debt ceiling last summer,
and he's been making that point consistently," Axelrod said. "The fact
that Gov. Romney picked up on it and attacked him on it is just one more
example of how he's just cascading from one gratuitous attack to
another, instead of talking about solutions to the problems we face."

Obama's
campaign also released a web video Friday morning targeting older
voters, many of whom would fall into the group of Americans Romney
referenced when he said that nearly half of Americans don't pay income
tax but get benefits. Senior citizens receiving Medicare make up about
15 percent of those getting federal benefits; about 22 percent of those
not paying income tax are seniors who get tax breaks that offset their
income.

The Obama video features voters commenting on Romney's assertions, including one man who says "It offends me."

Polling
shows Obama with a slight lead nationally, as well as in many of the
eight or so battleground states that will decide the election. That
includes Virginia, where Democrats with access to internal polling say
Obama is up 3 or 4 percentage points over Romney in Virginia, a slimmer
margin than in some recent public polling.

Obama has also pulled
ahead of Romney in cash on hand, a key measure of a campaign's financial
strength. The Democrat has more than $88 million to spend in the
campaign's final weeks, while Romney has just over $50 million at his
disposal.

Romney's campaign is seeking to regroup after a rough
stretch that included the emergence of a video in which he tells wealthy
donors at a private fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans pay no
income tax and that they believe they are victims and entitled to an
array of federal benefits. Obama has cast those remarks as a sign that
Romney is out of touch with most Americans.

"When you express an
attitude that half the country considers itself victims, that somehow
they want to be dependent on government, my thinking is maybe you
haven't gotten around a lot," Obama said Thursday during a forum on
Univision, the Spanish-language TV network.

Romney is also facing
criticism from some in his own party that he's spending too much time
raising money and not enough time talking to voters in the eight or so
battleground states that will decide the election. In response, his
campaign added a Sunday rally in Colorado to his schedule and announced a
three-day Ohio bus tour that kicks off Monday.

At the same time,
his wife, Ann, said GOP critics should lay off. "Stop it. This is hard.
You want to try it? Get in the ring," she said Thursday evening in an
interview with Radio Iowa.

"This is hard, and you know, it's an
important thing that we're doing right now, and it's an important
election," she said. "And it is time for all Americans to realize how
significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with
Mitt's qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the
opportunity to run this country."

The president will campaign
this weekend in Wisconsin, a state Romney is trying to put in play.
Republicans are hoping the addition of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan to the
GOP ticket will help them claim victory there — or at least force Obama
to spend time and money to hold the state.

Even with Election Day
under seven weeks away, voters across the country are already casting
ballots. By week's end, early voting will be under way in two dozen
states.

Obama was also making a play for older voters Friday by
speaking via satellite to an AARP convention and taking questions from
the group's members. The president's campaign is seeking to gain an
advantage with seniors and voters nearing retirement by attacking the
Republican ticket's plan for Medicare.

The popular federal
entitlement for seniors was the focus of a new television ad from the
Obama campaign. The ad, scheduled to air Friday in Colorado, Florida and
Iowa, presents a Democratic refrain — that Romney and Ryan would turn
Medicare into a voucher program that could raise seniors' health costs
by up to $6,400 a year.

Independent groups have said that a House
Republican budget proposal led by Ryan could lead to higher costs for
older Americans. But exactly how much is far from clear. The ad relies
on the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning think
tank, for the figure it cites.

Supporters of the Ryan plan say
competition among private insurance providers could wring waste out of
the system and bring down costs.

A five year old girl's dream came true today with the help of the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Leona, who lives in San Marcos and is battling cancer, wished to have the ultimate pirate ship playhouse in her backyard.

A five year old girl's dream came true today with the help of the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Leona, who lives in San Marcos and is battling cancer, wished to have the ultimate pirate ship playhouse in her backyard.

Few of us really know how our coworkers spend their time when they are off the clock. In Thursday's Zevely Zone, Jeff gets to know Ryan Brothers - a writer here at KFMB Stations and News 8 - who put his own signature on Mission Trails Regional Park.

Few of us really know how our coworkers spend their time when they are off the clock. In Thursday's Zevely Zone, Jeff gets to know Ryan Brothers - a writer here at KFMB Stations and News 8 - who put his own signature on Mission Trails Regional Park.

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At least one person was killed Saturday morning in a wrong-way crash on Interstate 5 in San Diego. The crash was reported at 3:51 a.m. on northbound I-5 north of Carmel Mountain Road, according to the California Highway Patrol.

A local company is on the cutting edge of ocean exploration using unmanned vehicles powered by wind and sun and the future looks bright for these ocean drones, which currently are being tested off the coast of San Diego.

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